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Just in time to watch the would-be thief scurry away to a waiting car — shotgun blasts do have a tendency to scare people, after all.

Barrow’s box is pretty simple — it contains a plate holding back a firing pin, connected to a string he’s tied off to his interior doorknob. When the box is pulled on hard enough, it moves the plate, allowing the firing pin to set off a 12-gauge shotgun blank.